Some period pics that Im pretty sure both are early Malvern Star track bikes....

The first one was taken at the old Canterbury velodrome in Charles St. Im not sure exactly what context this pic comes from, advertisement, scrap book etc as I havent seen the original yet.

This second pic was taken on tour in the US in 1927 with the Fitzgeralds and Harold Smith, this pic was taken at Revere Beach Cycle Track in Boston. Im pretty sure it is a Malvern based on his early career sponsorship being with Malvern Star, later years he rode for Carbine.

My copies of these pics are better quality, hopefully I can get hold of a better scanner to update these copies.

It would be great to hear the thoughts of you guys as to exactly what bike, model etc if it can be known from these pics.

the XX Malvern Star in its most recent incarnationMt Coot-tha, QueenslandIgnore the classy aluminium bike on the left.The Western Freeway is visible in the distance, (but the XXXX Milton Brewery is obscured from view in this aspect)

The bike -Gone is the bar end shifters - replaced by downtube indexed levers, sourced from a forum member.This enables me to use my Zefal rear vision mirror, which i love.The rear wheel is one that i got from LBS a few years ago and has had some thinner lock nuts put on the axle to make it fit between the dropouts.This measurement is 120 mm, which suggests that the bike is older than i first thought, probably circa 1977.There is a mysterious brand 7 speed cluster on the wheel, it works surprisingly well but not perfectly with the Shimano 6 speed indexing.

"Technology gives us much more information but Education is never be able to give us the skill to evaluate it"

ldrcycles wrote:I can't believe this thread hasn't been posted already! To kick things off, does anyone know anything about a Double XX? I picked one up the other day with a full 1979 600 arabesque group. The rear half of the stays is chromed, and it has a sticker on the seat tube saying double butted hi tensile steel (isn't that an oxymoron? ).

I also have an 80s Sprint 12 which is very low end (Shimano RS rear derailleur) but i still want to restore it for some reason.

Hi,What would you like to know about the double XX?, I bought one in October 1979 and still have it, I can tell you it came with full shimano 600 "arabesque", Araya rims, SR head and seat stems, Sakae bars, not the lightest bike, but well made and equiped, looked very smart in 1979. colour was called "coffee" and cost me $306,

i remember seeing one at the train station and i thought it was a bit of a clunker. i don't doubt that, if restored, it might fetch a dollar in the future, but not because it's a great bike - some people just like retro

sworks roubaix wrote:Hi,What would you like to know about the double XX?, I bought one in October 1979 and still have it.I restored it a couple of years ago

Very nice! It would probably be too small for me but I am envious. I can remember them brand new in '74.Rob

Yes that one looks as good as new. I had never even heard of a XX until i purchased one at a garage sale last year.Mine came with bar-end shifters and the frame looks to be a slightly deeper coffee brown colour, which i love.I still have the SR seatpost and stem at home but i had to replace them to get sufficient leg length.Those days seatposts much shorter than they are today !

"Technology gives us much more information but Education is never be able to give us the skill to evaluate it"

Just signed up and interested if anyone can help me id age of my 2 star malvern star I just scored. Serial number is 5.7125 at seat post mount. Frame has welded rear bars not bolted and rear facing rear wheel slots. Any info appreciated.

To Johnbright above, 2 star with frame number 5.7125. This is a non-conforming number, but I would like to keep a record of it, as if we get enough non-conforming numbers, perhaps they will conform to each other. Can you post some pics, or PM me for my email address and send me some pics direct? I can sometimes date the Malvern Stars from pictures, regardless of serial numbers. Warren

My 1940 3 Star "Oppy Racer". This bike was built in Adelaide and sold to Mr Arnold White on the 17/12/1940 for 15 pound 19 shillings and 6 pence. Serial Number 1665.May I take this opertunity to thank Warren Meade for all his great advice and bits and pieces.

This bike was my 1958 Christmas present. It originally was a two star roadster but being a boy racer I gradually converted it to a Cafe Racer. Three speed SW Sturmey Archer Hub, 27" wheels, drop bars and handbrakes. My son encourage me to get it out of the old shed so he could ride it in this years Noosa Eroica. After 35 years of rest she went like a bird except for the too high 16 cog. See in the forum "Convert a 3 speed Sturmey Archer to 6 speed" post for my way of fixing the problem.

Currently building up this gaspipe junker as a single speed train station bike. Was hoping to do it on the cheap using stuff from the left over parts bin but I keep having to spend money. At this point I would have been better off with an $80 Repco Preset from BigW, d'oh!

The frame was originally a nice bright blue but for some reason it has copped a partial re-spray with a pale metalic blue. The above photo is from 3 years ago when I collected it, I think I binned the heavy pressed steel cranks when I stripped it right down for storage. Bit of a shame since I'm now running some Sugino RT's with drillium rings (still wating on bolts to switch it to a single ring) which are too good for the rest of the bike and I'd hate to see them disappear.

Had a bit of an issue with the brakes, tried fitting a pair of Dia-Compe 500 sidepulls and they didn't even come close to reaching the rims. I have the same callipers on my Nishiki and they're fine, not even at the bottom of their reach. Both bikes are running 700c rims, I guess the cheapo Malvern Star just has bigger clearances for mudguards and whatnot. I've ordered a pair of these 57-75mm Dia-Compe MX806's, hopefully they fit, I measured approx 75mm from centre of the bolt to centre of the rim. Then I decided that I didn't want to use the wobbly old non-aero levers which were missing their hoods anyway and grabbed a pair of NOS Dia-Compe BL-07 levers with hoods from the UK.

Here is the current state of it. Wheels are some well used Mavic Open 4CDs with 105 hubs (I think) and a cheapo SS conversion with spacers. Seat is rubbish, the older style that cinches up with a single bolt and I can't get it to stay put no matter how much I crank it up. I have a spare Selle Italia Q Flow but I fear it is far too desirable and may appeal to someone with light fingers. Might see if BigW/Kmart have anything on rails for under $20. The bars are heavy steelos donated by Nickobec, I believe they came off another verge collection parts donor. I guess if I end up with a bunch of half decent components on a rubbish frame, maybe I'll look for something more worthy and swap them all out.

I've managed to score some real 28" Westwood wheels for my 2 Star and some mudguards as well, but I really need to find some forks and drum brakes which are proving hard to find!

You can clearly see not only are the forks not genuine items, but they're designed for 27" wheels as they have the mudguard mounting all messed up and are causing it to impact on the front of the head of the motor.

Anyone have any leads on forks and brakes? 32 hole front, 40 hole rear drum brakes are what I'm looking for. As for forks, while I'd love to find some suitable girder forks I think just some appropriate MV ones actually designed for 28" wheels will be the easiest (haha) answer...

For the benefit of others amusement I thought I would relay a moment of my stupidity this afternoon. Being a nice warm dry afternoon I thought I might try and start the painting on my ladies coronation. I have recently bought a little spray gun and done a couple of reasonable jobs. I want purple paint and thought..hmm.I have lots of old spray cans with bits in so maybe all the blue and red could be mixed to make purple? All was going well as I drilled a small hole into the top of old cans and drained the juice until I struck one that was pretty full. I foolishly had shaken them all to make sure the paint was not too separated but kind of forgot what happens when you shake a can of coke. When I drilled the red one which must have still had a full charge of gas and a near full can of aerated paint the red paint sprayed out beautifully in all directions.Man, that makes a mess If I could take a picture to adequately display the results I would have but you'll have to use your imagination. Thankfully nothing important was close by and now my cordless drill will be easy to identify on job sites.

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